And then a cold shiver ran down my spine.  For, from within the mountain, back came three answering knocks:  Boom! . . .  Boom! . . .  Boom!

Wide-eyed we looked at one another as though the earth itself had spoken.  And the solemn little silence that followed was broken by the Doctor.

“Thank Heaven,” he said in a hushed reverent voice, “some of them at least are alive!”

PART FIVE

THE FIRST CHAPTER

A GREAT MOMENT

The next part of our problem was the hardest of all:  how to roll aside, pull down or break open, that gigantic slab.  As we gazed up at it towering above our heads, it looked indeed a hopeless task for our tiny strength.

But the sounds of life from inside the mountain had put new heart in us.  And in a moment we were all scrambling around trying to find any opening or crevice which would give us something to work on.  Chee-Chee scaled up the sheer wall of the slab and examined the top of it where it leaned against the mountain’s side; I uprooted bushes and stripped off hanging creepers that might conceal a weak place; the Doctor got more leaves and composed new picture-letters for the Jabizri to take in if he should turn up again; whilst Polynesia carried up a handful of nuts and pushed them into the beetle’s hole, one by one, for the prisoners inside to eat.

“Nuts are so nourishing,” she said.

But Jip it was who, scratching at the foot of the slab like a good ratter, made the discovery which led to our final success.

“Doctor,” he cried, running up to John Dolittle with his nose all covered with black mud, “this slab is resting on nothing but a bed of soft earth.  You never saw such easy digging.  I guess the cave behind must be just too high up for the Indians to reach the earth with their hands, or they could have scraped a way out long ago.  If we can only scratch the earth-bed away from under, the slab might drop a little.  Then maybe the Indians can climb out over the top.”

The Doctor hurried to examine the place where Jip had dug.

“Why, yes,” he said, “if we can get the earth away from under this front edge, the slab is standing up so straight, we might even make it fall right down in this direction.  It’s well worth trying.  Let’s get at it, quick.”

We had no tools but the sticks and slivers of stone which we could find around.  A strange sight we must have looked, the whole crew of us squatting down on our heels, scratching and burrowing at the foot of the mountain, like six badgers in a row.

After about an hour, during which in spite of the cold the sweat fell from our foreheads in all directions, the Doctor said,

“Be ready to jump from under, clear out of the way, if she shows signs of moving.  If this slab falls on anybody, it will squash him flatter than a pancake.”